


A Brief Moment in Time

by jade-1459 (Jade)



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-22
Updated: 2012-05-22
Packaged: 2017-11-05 19:55:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 416
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/410396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jade/pseuds/jade-1459
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It had been a long time since he'd gone rock climbing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Brief Moment in Time

He was breathing hard by the time he topped the mesa.

It had been a long time since he'd gone rock climbing. It had been even longer since he'd done something as stupid as climb without the proper gear, never mind safety lines. His body ached in way it hadn't for years. Everything from the tips of his toes to the ends of his hair throbbed in time with the beating of his heart.

Even his vision grayed out slightly with each desperate lung full of air. And he thought that it had more to do with the ways his body protested breathing than with the air being too thin to breath. He'd have passed out on his way up if the oxygen levels had been too low.

Flopping over on to his back, John let the warm rocks under him suck out some of the pain coursing through his muscles. The sun was still high in the sky up here, the heat and light beating down even through the cool breeze that fluttered the brown grass stuff growing between cracks in the stone. The mesa top was low enough to still be warm, but high enough not to be muggy. And rolling his head to one side and cracking open an eye showed him a view that nearly took the rest of his breath away.

The air was so clean, so clear that John could see for miles and miles without really trying. The strange brown flora of this part of the planet stretched out as far as his eyes could see on the land below. It was completely untouched by human settlements. Everything was just the way that nature had intended it to be here on this planet. Humans hadn't come to settle, hadn't built trading camps or colonies. They'd found the world to be too inhospitable. John couldn't help but think they were fools. Didn't matter that below it was well over 90 degrees and Rodney had told them that the planet was in the deepest part of it's winter.

The scenery was similar to the deserts he'd seen on Earth, but different enough to keep the memories of war from surfacing. The difference was the flora. Earth's deserts didn't have the kind of far reaching grass lands in it's deserts. But that was all he could see in every direction. John had never seen the African Savannah, but after seeing a place like this, he wondered if it didn't look the same.


End file.
